


Life According To Baylee

by alota_cookin



Category: Backstreet Boys
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25709863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alota_cookin/pseuds/alota_cookin
Summary: Baylee Littrell just turned 15 years old and his life has always been FAR from normal.But things have gotten even more intense since his parents passed and he struggles to bond with his guardian.Allow him to show you what his life is like.This is Life According To Baylee...told by Baylee, himself.Original publication: 04/21/08 - 01/16/11
Comments: 7
Kudos: 7





	1. Prologue

“You are NOT getting a tattoo and that’s final!” We were standing in the living room, yelling at each other, again. This had been a common occurrence lately. It has become so frequent that it is hard to remember the moments when we aren’t fighting about…SOMETHING.

“That’s not fair! Everyone else is getting them!” I yelled.

“And, if everyone else decided it was cool to fly to Alaska so they could run around naked in the snow before screwing a seal, would you do that too?” he questioned me, at the top of his lungs while flinging his arms in the air. I just rolled my eyes. Leave it to him, to come up with an analogy that messed up!

“Why can’t a get a tattoo? You’ve got tattoos and AJ is covered in them!”

“Neither of us are FIFTEEN!” We both turned toward the front door that we heard opening.

“I came at a bad time, didn’t I? I could hear you two squabbling as soon as I got out of my truck,” AJ raised his eyebrows. He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed as he looked from me, to my guardian, then back to me.

“Yeah. Baylee, here, wants to get a fucking tattoo.”

“Tell him it’s no big deal,” I begged AJ. “After all, you have them. Wouldn’t it be hypocritical to tell me ‘no’? Just like you guys swearing and then telling me that I can’t.” I asked in a pleading manner.

“He’s right, Baylee. You can’t get one now. And, technically, it isn’t hypocritical because neither of us had any tattoos at your age.” AJ put his arm around me and squeezed my shoulder.

“Plus, I can fucking cuss as much as I damn well please because I…am…an…ADULT! When you are an adult, you can do whatever your heart desires. Cuss all day long, if you want! Cover your body in tattoos from head to toe, for all I care. I don’t give a shit, but, you have to wait until you are an adult…just like EVERYONE else!”

“This is so not fair! I HATE YOU!” I screamed in my guardian’s face.

“Great, I’m thrilled. But if you don’t get that attitude under control, then you will be hating me all weekend long…IN YOUR ROOM, instead of going to that concert. You are not getting a tattoo. End…of…discussion!” He spat back.

“You are unbelievable! How can you do this to me? If you don’t want me then send me to my Grandma and Grandpa’s to live,” I scowled before storming up the stairs to my room.

“See? I TOLD you guys from the beginning that I couldn’t do this!” I heard him say to AJ, as I reached the top of the stairs.

“He’s a teenager, man. They go through these stages.” AJ chuckled.

Okay, I guess I better clue you in, huh? My name is Baylee Thomas Wylee Littrell, and I just turned 15 years old. The man downstairs that I was arguing with is my guardian…not my father. My parents died just before my 9th birthday.

It was a really bad car accident that took my parents away from me. My dad died instantly, on the scene, but my mom hung on for quite a while. She was on life support but, from what I’m told, she was brain dead. After 6 months on life support, with no improvement, the family decided that it was time to let her go.

I spent every day in that room, talking to her. Everyone told me that God would be the one to decide if she was going to stay with me or go to heaven with dad. When it came time to ‘pull the plug’ my Grandma L. told me that God must want her with them in heaven because she wasn’t getting any better. Saying goodbye to my mother was horrible but at least I GOT to say goodbye. I don’t know if she could really hear me, but I never even got the chance with dad.

At such a young age, I didn’t really even completely understand what was going on. Then, I had to move in with my new guardian. I had been in the care of my Grandparents until mom died. But, once she was gone, their will went into affect. That was when I found out where I would be living. Evidently, my parents had put together a will when I was born and kept it, pretty well, updated.

I got to keep quite a bit of my parent’s stuff and all their money went into bank accounts for me. My guardian divided it up…over half of it went into a college fund. The rest, according to my parent’s will, was/is to be spent on me for things I need or want, within reason, of course. It’s just too bad that HE gets to decide what is ‘within reason’.

I don’t REALLY hate him. We always got along when I was younger. Honestly, I love the guy but he still doesn’t compare to the real thing. Sometimes I just wish I could have my parents back. I don’t know why I get to upset and say such mean things to him, now. We hardly ever get along anymore and I’m not even, entirely, sure why.

So here it is…life according to me, Baylee Littrell.


	2. Chapter One

“Bay?” He knocked softly on my door, over an hour later. “I ordered take out. Are you hungry?”

“Did AJ leave?” I asked without answering his question.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “He said that you can call him later if you would rather talk to him as opposed to me. Which, we all know, you will.”

“Probably,” I agreed as I finally looked up at him from my position on the bed.

“At any rate, food will be here in a half hour. You can pick out a movie to watch while we eat, if you want.”

“Okay.” Was all I said before he walked back out my door. He gently closed the door and I pulled out my cell phone. It rang several times before AJ picked up.

“Hey there, little B,” he greeted. His girlfriend must be over because he sounded pretty chipper. The man was seriously head over heels for this chick. I was happy for him though. I have never seen him so happy…he’s like a love sick puppy.

“AJ, I’m the only B,” I sighed with a roll of my eyes. 

“Hey now, don’t roll your eyes at me, young man,” he chuckled. AJ had a lot to do with raising me. He had been there for me and my guardian, ever since my parents passed. Sometimes, I think he knows me TOO well.

“Why does he have to be so strict?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Honestly, Bay, do you think your parents would have let you get a tattoo?”

“No,” I answered simply.

“Then why did you expect HIM to let you?” he asked me.

“Because, he is supposed to be cooler and let me do stuff that my parents wouldn’t have let me do.”

“Oh yeah, that makes PERFECT sense. Cut the guy a break, Baylee. He is trying to care for you the way your father would have. All he wants to do is make sure that you grow up to be the type of person your mom and dad would have wanted you to be. Besides, he’s not THAT bad.”

“Yes he IS! You don’t understand!”

“Aaaah, such a teenage thing to say. I can’t count how many times I told my mom that she didn’t understand me,” he chuckled. Why does AJ ALWAYS have to take HIS side? It is so frustrating, it seems like I have no allies.

“Maybe that’s because I am a teenager?” I asked sarcastically.

“Maybe. Or, maybe, you just don’t want to admit that he’s right. You knew, damn well, that he wasn’t going to agree to something like that! He lets you get away with a lot of stuff, if you think about it. Just imagine what it would have been like if you lived with your Uncle Harold.”

“Eeesh, I guess ANYone is better than him! I mean, I love Uncle H. but he is so weird!” I scrunched my nose at the thought and AJ laughed loudly.

“See? Things could always be worse. If you lived with me, I would probably be just as bad. We all love you Bay and don’t want to see anything happen to you. All of us are guilty of being a bit over protective,” his voice was so comforting. He was right, of course…not that I would admit that. I did remember how my grandparents reacted during the 6 months I spent with them. They did everything short of putting me in a bubble!

“The only thing worse, would be if I was ACTUALLY his son!” I exclaimed.

“Shut up, Bay. You love him, just as much as he loves you. I’m not stupid and I don’t believe, for a second, that you hate him. Besides, you are just as bad of a liar as your father was,” he snickered at me.

“You are not helping,” I said with a bit of anger.

“Oh, sorry, am I supposed to be helping? Because, I just thought I was here if you needed to talk…I didn’t say shit about helping.”

“You are such a smart ass, AJ.”

“Hey now, that’s smart ALEK to you, young man. Trust me when I say that soap does not have a very good flavor.”

“Let me guess…you know from experience, right?” I asked, rolling my eyes and grabbing a can of soda from the small refrigerator by my bed.

“A little too well, actually. I made the mistake of dropping the F-bomb in front of mom and Kevin when I was…come to think of it, I was right about your age. Of course, Nick laughed his ass off, but, when told me I shouldn’t have said that shit, he ended up right next to me with a similar bar of soap. I think it was Zest…whichever one has that distinct foresty, rainy, clean kind of smell,” he rambled. He always rambles on about stuff that happened when he was younger, which is funny because I have always thought he was too young to do that storytelling stuff.

“Irish Spring?”

“YEAH, that’s the one!”

“What did my dad and Howie do?”

“Your dad lectured us, like usual and Howie sat there, shaking his head,” he answered with another laugh.

“I bet you were a lot more careful, after that,” I replied and took another drink of my soda.

“Hardly! Nick and I found ourselves with a bar of soap in our mouths on a fairly regular basis.”

“But you give ME a hard time?”

“Hey, I said that I did it…I never said that it was right.”

“Yeah well…” I tailed off, not really sure what to say. Then I heard a yell from downstairs. “I think our take out is here.”

“Alright, Bay. Just…try, okay?”

“I guess. I will talk to you later.”

“Sure thing. And remember to cut him some slack,” AJ emphasized his point again. “Night, Bay.”

“Night AJ.” I flipped my phone shut before heading downstairs to eat.

AJ always did a good job of proving his point…which was USUALLY a good one. Curse him for making me feel guilty for starting, yet, another fight. I hadn’t intentionally gotten up in the morning, saying “I’m going to do whatever I can to make my guardian mad, today.” We just always…kind of…end up in a fight.

I guess my parents had a good reason for picking HIM, even though, I doubt, I will ever understand why. Granted, I used to get along with him really well but, now that I’m older, we are SO different! No one else understands why I got stuck with him either. By all rights, I should have been with a set of my grandparents or Uncle Harold, or even Uncle Kevin. But nooooooooooo. That’s not who I got at all!


	3. Chapter Two

“So, there’s this party tonight…” I started to bring up a new subject. We had just finished eating and were still watching the movie. The Chinese food was really good this time, I think he got it from a different place.

“No.” he interrupted me with a simple but firm answer.

“WHAT?!? Why not?” I scrunched my eyebrows and stared at him. He tore his eyes from the screen and locked them with mine.

“Today is Wednesday. It’s a school night. You have homework. You can’t go.”

“Are you kidding me? I have my reputation to uphold! I will be laughed out of school tomorrow if I’m not there tonight!”

“Honestly, Bay. You play football AND basketball. You are the most popular kid in the entire high school and you are only a freshman. Somehow, I doubt that missing one party is going to jeopardize that. If anything, everyone else will feel lame because it wasn’t a good enough party for you to show up at. Remember? You are the standard setter…if Baylee Littrell does it, then it must be cool; but if he doesn’t, then it’s gotta be lame.”

“Easy for you to say…you are WORLD FAMOUS!” I argued, tossing my empty carton on the floor.

“Go ahead, Baylee. I dare you to take a poll of ALL the Backstreet fans in the world because I am willing to bet that you are more popular than me and I am IN THE GROUP!” he raised his voice as he leaned toward me.

“Whatever,” I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

“You and Mason are more famous than ANY of US are…and you have been ever since you were born because all our fans are girls and they were all ‘goo-goo ga’ing over how fuckin adorable you both were. So don’t you even dare try to put that on me, as a guilt trip. Your precious popularity isn’t going anywhere and neither are you.”

“You know what? I don’t even see why AJ is such good friends with you. He is so cool and you are such a dick.”

“Look, you can call me what ever, the hell, you want but you are still under MY care and you are NOT going to that stupid party! Ding. Ding. Ding. Yatzee…FINAL ANSWER!” At this point, I could tell I was getting under his skin again.

“The only thing I hate about my parents, is their decision to make YOU my guardian.” I retorted as I narrowed my eyes in anger. Why can’t he just loosen up and let me go? UGH! I never get to do what I want.

“Oh, Boo fucking hoo. Cry me a river, build a damn bridge, and get the fuck over it Baylee.” He told me in a low voice. I can always tell how mad he is at me by how much he swears. He tries really hard not to swear at me but when we really get into it…he looses all his control and lets the cuss words flow.

“You know what…FUCK YOU! I’m going to bed.” I screamed in his face before turning on my heel and running up the stairs. Another typical night in our house, except, I usually don’t swear at him. I know better than that. I just couldn’t help it! He is being so ridiculous! I mean, what is the big deal? He just doesn’t want me to have any fun!

So guess what I did. I rummaged through my huge closet that was packed full of designer clothes and picked out an outfit. Quickly getting dressed and running a comb through my massively curly hair, I raced around my room. It was only 15 minutes before I was climbing out of my window and down the tree. I had called one of my older friends and told him to pick me up at the corner. There was NO way that I was going to miss this party!

Just as I figured, the party was awesome! I had some beers and danced with a cheerleader that I really liked. I was only gone for a few hours. Slowly climbing back up the tree outside my window, I made my way back up to my room. I quietly climbed through my window and into my dark bedroom. Tearing off my shirt, I tossed it to the floor and flipped on the light.

“Oh shit,” I said, barely above a whisper as I noticed, for the first time, that he was sitting on the chair, in the corner…waiting.

“Oh shit doesn’t even begin to cover it, Baylee.”

“I just went to talk to AJ, but I figured, if I asked, you wouldn’t let me do THAT either,” I said lying through my teeth and hoping that he would buy it. He was glaring at me with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Oh really? Well that changes everything because AJ has been sitting downstairs, waiting for your return, for the past two hours. After discovering that you were gone, he was the first person I called but, low and behold, you weren’t there. Strike one was you sneaking out. Strike two was you lying to me. Are we going to go for strike three?”

“I…um…” I stuttered while I fidgeted with my hands.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Hey, glad to see you could join us,” AJ said appearing in the doorway. “I called Kevin, Baylee. He’s on the way and he is NOT happy.”

“What did you do that for?” I shouted in disbelief. How could AJ turn against me, too? This was not, at all, fair. AJ was always the cool one, why is he being such a stiff?

“You are giving us no choice...hold the fucking phone for a sec…,” AJ scrunched his eyebrows and leaned forward as he came towards me. He looked me square in the eye. “You are so fucking busted, Baylee! I can’t believe this shit! Out of you?”

“Do I even want to know?” the voice in the corner spoke up, again.

“Baylee, you are to sit on that fucking bed and not move a god damn muscle until we get back. Do you understand me?” AJ asked with a look of pure anger and disappointment. Oh, I was in for it now!

“Yes.” I answered in a whisper, hanging my head and staring at the floor. If it would have just been my guardian, I would have been able to hide it, but with AJ there…I didn’t even stand a chance. The two of them left the room and I heard them talking. I knew AJ was telling him that I had been drinking. AJ knew that scene all to well.

“WHAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” My head shot up and my eyes grew so wide that I’m surprised they didn’t fall out. I had never, EVER heard him yell that loud!

Next thing I knew, the door flew open with such force that the door knob made a hole in the wall behind it. He took a hold of the wife beater that I was still wearing and pulled me close. Taking in a deep whiff of my scent, he let go and stepped back. His face fell and his eyes hazed over with a mixture of defeat and disappointment.

“Let’s leave him,” AJ said placing a hand on his shoulders. He and I had not broken the lock that our eyes had. He shrugged AJ’s hand off his shoulder. Letting out a deep sigh, he shook his head.

“Pack, Baylee. I think you need to go with Kevin, when he gets here. You’ll be staying there for a few days,” his voice was low and full of…sadness? Yes, I was sure that I detected quite a bit of sadness.

“I think he’s right, Baylee. We, obviously, aren’t doing the job well. Maybe Kevin can get through to you,” AJ agreed with a similar sadness. They left my room and went downstairs to greet Kevin, who would be there at any moment.

See, when I moved in with my guardian, AJ moved too. He got a place right down the street because he wanted to help raise me and be there to support both of us. I had majorly blown it this time and I knew it. I had hurt them both really bad. But, was there any way to fix it? Or, was it too late? I headed out of my room, without even packing, to try and talk to them. When I reached the top of the stairs I heard Kevin’s voice.


	4. Chapter Three

“I’m not taking him! You can’t pawn him off every time you two get into a fight,” Kevin shook his head. I just stood there and watched the scene unfold.

“You don’t understand Kevin! The kid HATES ME! He doesn’t want to be here, he doesn’t like his life here, and he sure, as hell, doesn’t want me as his guardian. I don’t know what to do anymore!” he screamed back. His back was to me, Kevin was facing him and AJ was on the side…so I could clearly see the looks on both Kevin and AJ’s faces, but not his.

“Kev…” AJ interjected. “I smelled booze on Baylee tonight. We have tried, like fuck, to get through to him but he just shuts us out.”

“NO, correction…he shuts ME out…he adores the fuck out of you. If I remember correctly I think his words were ‘I don’t understand why AJ is such good friends with you. He is so cool and you are such a dick.’.”

“Ouch,” AJ scrunched his nose.

“He was drinking?” Kevin furrowed his eyebrows.

“Yes.” The other two men answered.

“Oh boy,” Kevin sighed.

“See? What did I tell you guys? I TOLD you from the beginning that I couldn’t do this! Why did Brian do this to me? I am fucking up his son! I don’t even want to know what Brian would say to me, if he were here!” He asked. I could faintly hear what I thought to be sniffles. Was he really crying? Over me? What had I done?

“It’ll be okay. Teenagers are hard to deal with, it’s not your fault,” Kevin comforted and he and AJ engulfed him in a hug. I slowly made my way down the stairs until I was to the bottom, only a few feet behind them.

“Did you pack?” AJ asked me and he and Kevin looked up at me.

“No,” I answered. “I’m staying here.”

“I don’t believe that you are in a position to tell us what you are or are not going to do, Baylee,” Kevin said, crossing his arms. “I am very disappointed in you.”

“I know,” I nodded my head.

“AJ, let’s go,” Kevin put a hand on my guardian’s shoulder. “You two need to talk.”

“I believe that you owe a certain someone an apology, too,” AJ sneered at me. The rage and disappointment were still very evident in his voice and eyes. I simply nodded as they left. It was just me and him now. We stood in silence. He hadn’t even turned to face me.

“Go to bed, Baylee. You have school in the morning,” he instructed as he slowly trudged into the other room. He had still not looked at me. I was ruining the relationships that I had with both my guardian and AJ. I had betrayed their trust and acted like such a brat. I decided to follow him.

“Kevin is right,” I said softly to his back. He had taken a position on the large couch and was flipping through channels. “It’s not your fault. I have been acting like a brat.”

“I told you to go to bed, not that I expect you to listen,” he replied with a shake of the head.

“I heard what you said to Kevin,” I continued to talk and ignore his instruction.

“Baylee…” he stood up to, sort of, face me but still didn’t make eye contact.

“I don’t hate you…just so you know,” I blurted before he could tell me to go to bed, again.

“You act like it.”

“It’s not really intentional…it just kind of…happens.” I explained from where I stood in the doorway. I had to fix things. Not that I expected everything to be all hunky dory and fine, but I had really screwed up and needed things to start being okay, again. My parents put me with him for a reason and maybe I would figure it out, eventually. Until then, I have to trust their decision.

“Whatever. It’s well past midnight and you have school in the morning,” he said as he pushed past me. This was going to be a bit more difficult than I had expected.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered causing him to stop. He finally looked me dead in the eyes and that’s when I saw that he had, in fact, had a few streaks on his cheeks. He actually shed a few tears. Mind you, this is a big deal because he is not the type to really cry…so just those two or three tears told me how badly and how deep I had hurt him.

“Excuse me?” he questioned with disbelief and confusion dripping from his voice.

“I said…” I licked my lips before taking a deep breath to continue, “I said that I am sorry, Nick.” His light blue eyes were still locked with my darker blues. We just stood there as he was, obviously, trying to figure out if I was joking or not. “And…I…uh…” I took another long deep breath. “I kinda…well…I…I love you.”

“I love you, too, Baylee.” He smiled slightly and let out a sigh as he pulled me into a hug. Maybe we could start getting along again, now? I guess, we’ll see.


	5. Chapter Four

The rest of the week went pretty well, it was now Saturday afternoon. We got into an argument over my grades because I had failed a test, but other than that, it was a pretty smooth week. I was now on Christmas break. We actually got off on the 18th and didn’t go back until the 3rd of January! Needless to say, I am stoked!

“Come on Baylee! Howie is going to be here any minute. Help me get this house picked up,” Nick shouted up the stairs. “Don’t roll your eyes, just help. You know Howie is staying with us for the week and you also know what a clean freak he is!”

“Don’t remind me,” I chuckled at the thought of Howie’s severe obsessive compulsiveness. “Tell me again, why Leigh isn’t coming?” I asked as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

“She is spending time with her family. She told Howie that he should spend the holidays with the Backstreet family because he went with her last year,” he replied. I couldn’t help but smirk as I looked at my guardian’s appearance. His hair was stuck up in all directions and he had one leg of his sweat pants above his knee; he still had ketchup, from lunch, in one corner of his mouth and he had a frazzled look on his face. That is a classic vision of Nick…always in disarray.

“When is he going to be here?” I asked as I grabbed some of the clean laundry from his arms.

“I have to go pick him up at the airport in…” he trailed off looking at his watch. “OH SHIT! I’M LATE!”

“Classic. Howie is going to eat you for dinner,” I laughed with a roll of my eyes. “Aw man! You turned my socks pink again!” I held up a sock and scrunched my nose. “You better not come back unless you have some new socks for me!”

“Well if you would have helped me from the beginning, instead of leaving all the chores to me, then MAYBE this wouldn’t have happened!”

“I hate chores,” I groaned.

“So do I,” he furrowed his eyebrows. “Now, I have got to go get Howie. I will pick you up some socks on the way back but PLEASE try to do SOMETHING around here before we get back.”

“I’ll think about it…” I paused then shrugged giving him the answer, “it’s doubtful.”

“Rrrrr,” he growled at me as he sprinted out the door.

“Okay,” I started talking to myself as I looked at the pile of laundry in my arms. “It will take at least and hour and a half for him to get to the airport and pick up Howie. Knowing them, they will spend another hour in Wal-mart, plus another half hour to get back here. So that gives me about three hours to do something with this pig sty.” I looked around at the house. It was a MESS! Nick had spent most of the morning trying to clean but it didn’t look like anyone had touched it in over a month. “That gives me only one option…AJ.”

“Speak words,” AJ answered his phone.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Well, howdy, Little B.”

“Can you come help me? Nick just left to pick up Howie and this house is still…well…”

“Trashed? Destroyed? You know, I heard something on the news about a natural disaster…I think they named it something like Nicklee…did you hear about that?” AJ chuckled at his own joke but I just groaned.

“He asked me to try and do something before they got back. I figured it would shock the pants off, both of them, if they walked in to see the place spotless. Plus, it would be another good way for me to try making it up to Nick for being a brat,” I explained quickly.

“Making it up to Nick, are we?” he questioned with a snicker.

“It’s been interesting, but I have really been trying. Failing my geometry test didn’t help the situation much, but other than that we have done pretty well the past few days. Oh hey, hold on there is someone at the door…”

“I’m very well aware of that,” AJ smirked as he pushed past me and slipped off his shoes. “Holy hell! This place has gone to the pits and I was just here three days ago!”

“I know. Nick fired that housekeeper over a month ago. I am surprised he kept up on it this long,” I smiled over at him.

“And, they are do back…when…exactly?” he asked hesitantly as he walked into the kitchen.

“He left at, about 2, so they should be here around 5 or so…Nick had to pick me up some socks. He turned mine pink,” I replied.

“Again? That man has turned more socks pink than everyone else in the world…COMBINED!” he shook his head with a sigh, “Let’s get to work,” he shook his head and shoved up his sleeves.

“I’ll brave the dishes and laundry, if you want to work on the living room and hallways,” I suggested.

“Sounds like a start. I should probably wear gloves,” he said sarcastically before laughing loudly and heading to the living room. I set to work on the mountain of dishes. After getting the first load in the dishwasher, I began to wash the rest by hand so they would get finished faster. AJ turned the stereo on and cranked the volume. I think we both got into the swing of things, before long, and were able to really get things done. Before I knew it, I was done with the kitchen; the floor included, and was tidying the dinning room.

“Yo, BayBay?” AJ questioned as he came into the dinning room to find me washing the large windows.

“Yeah, JayJay?” I asked as I turned long enough to give him a quick glance.

“I’m glad you called me. You are makin’ me proud today,” he smiled before ruffling my curls.

“Whatever dude. Save all that mushy crap for your woman.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I finished the windows. I wiped off the table and chairs before heading to start folding the laundry. AJ was now vacuuming the upstairs hallway. He had finished the living room and den and he had gotten all of the downstairs carpet vacuumed. It was now quarter after 4 and we only had 45 minutes or so to get done what we could.

“Hey, BayBay? I’m getting a bottle of water, you want one?” he asked as I folded the last of Nick’s shirts.

“Oh my gosh, YES!” I answered dramatically as I headed up to put the laundry away. AJ met me in my room with the bottles of water.

“Well, at least, the downstairs is spotless,” AJ sighed as he leaned in the doorway, watching me clean my room.

“Yep. My room is almost done and then I am going to get the room, down the hall, all set up for Howie,” I told him as I grabbed the vacuum to put the finishing touch on my room.

“Alright, I’ll head down and get started on it,” he turned and headed down to the guest room that Howie liked the most. Howie has stayed with us a couple times when he has visited. He lives out in New Mexico, now. They move a lot but I’m not really sure why. I don’t think I could remember all the places they have lived. Nick says that he and Leigh haven’t found the right spot where they want to settle down. Of course, that makes NO sense to me, but whatever.

“I’m done,” I said as I entered the guest room where AJ was tidying.

“Cool, so am I. I got everything set up just how he likes it. Get it? How he…Howie…how he?” his shoulders shook as he laughed.

“Lame, JayJay…lame,” I rolled my eyes. “HEY! Let’s order pizza and have it delivered! Nick and Howie should be here in 15 minutes, give or take,” I smiled widely at the thought. That was one thing that had rubbed off on me…Nick’s love for pizza.

“Good plan,” he stuck his tongue out at me and ruffled my hair on his way by. That was one of the annoying habits that EVERYONE in the Backstreet family seemed to have: ruffling up my curls. What is with that? I know they used to do it to Howie, but now, I am the ruffled curls target. How messed up is that? I’ll never understand the obsession they all have with curls.

“I think they are here, either that, or it only took 10 minutes for them to cook and deliver our pizza,” AJ said as he peeked out of the window.

“Quick, turn out the lights and let’s hide!”

“We have taught you well!” AJ teased as he hit the lights and we scampered in separate directions.

“Look, Howie, please forgive me for the mess, okay? We have had a lot of…things happening…lately,” I could hear Nick apologizing as he opened the door.

“I would expect nothing less from you, Nicky,” Howie laughed.

“Yeah well…it’s REALLY bad this time,” Nick moaned as he felt around for the switch. Turning the lights on he slipped off his shoes. Howie kicked his off too, and then they both froze.

“Oh yeah, Nick…it’s just plain awful. You can’t even walk in here!” Howie retorted sarcastically and I could just barely see him give Nick a really funny look.

“But…but…I…I don’t…” Nick stumbled over his words as they walked into the foyer. AJ and I quietly crept for our hiding spots…I was in the closet that was in the entryway and AJ was in the living room.

“HOOOWIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” we both screamed at the top of our lungs, causing both him and Nick to jump about 10 feet…then we tackled Howie to the ground and I messed up his hair.

“Aaaaw get off me, ya freaks!” Howie chuckled as he tried to fight us off.

“We missed you!” AJ smiled widely.

“Yeah, we missed you!” Our tackle turned into a big group hug before AJ helped him to his feet.

“The house looks great, Baylee,” Nick said softly after AJ, Howie, and I were all back on our feet.

“AJ came in as reinforcement,” I gave Nick a lopsided grin. “AND we ordered PIZZA!” I squealed as the delivery guy approached the house. AJ tossed the guy his money and I grabbed the pizza. We helped Howie take his bags upstairs and then the four of us sat down for an action flick and pizza. Ah, it was nice to have a guy’s nice with no females and no fighting! Plus, I knew Nick was pleased that I had managed to get the house spotless, with AJ’s help. Oh, and Nick’s room was the exception…there isn’t enough money in the UNIVERSE to get me to even attempt cleaning that room!


End file.
